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PS3 the new Wii? PlayStation Motion Controller aims to perfect the Wii-mote

Amid an already-good Sony E3 press conference, a time-out was taken amid PSP Go details, PSP games, and PS3 holiday titles to peek into the future at some on-the-horizon motion-control technology. The routine was familiar already: in fact, Microsoft and Nintendo had similar "the future is motion" pit stops in their 2009 E3 press conferences.

Being last, it seemed, would be a disadvantage to Sony. Appearing onstage were two of Sony's team behind the PlayStation Eye and EyeToy, and the general nervousness seemed palpable. When the prototype device was revealed--a black wand with a glowing purple bulb on top--it almost seemed like a joke. But a funny thing happened: the longer the demo went on, the better it got.

Sony's black wand appears to be the PS3's Wii-mote. Configured with an analog trigger and some number of buttons, the wand has one-to-one mapping just like the Wii Motion Plus. The glowing orb, which changed color during the demo, was integral to the positioning technology, although exactly how wasn't detailed in the press conference.… Read more

Two new Super Mario Wii games among those announced at Nintendo E3 press conference

Now that the Nintendo E3 2009 press conference is behind us, let's take a look at some of the game announcements for the Wii. While we saw a few titles we were expecting, there were a couple that came as total surprises.

Right out of the gate, we got to see a brand-new 2D Mario Bros. game for the Wii. New Super Mario Bros. will allow for four-player co-op playing and will feature new game characters and power ups.

Wii Fit Plus, the successor to Wii Fit, will arrive in the fall and come bundled once again with a … Read more

Undelete Plus 3.0 can get that file back

I've been raving a lot lately about the importance of backing up, and it seems I still haven't done enough to get my point across.

Case in point: since my most recent backup-related post, I have received multiple e-mails asking how to retrieve files that have been accidentally deleted.

The right question is: Is it even possible to retrieve lost files? And the answer is, it depends. Once you have deleted a file (and even emptied the Recycle Bin), the information from the file is still on the hard drive. As long as the same spot of hard disk hasn't been used by another file, it's possible to get that file back. So, the earlier you try to recover, the more likely it is you will be successful.

Note that during a normal operation, a computer does a lot of writing to the hard drive, because it uses hard drive space as scrap notes for different computations. If you need to recover a lot of data from a main hard drive, where the operation system is installed, it's best to put that hard drive into another computer to do the recovery.

There are many software applications that can recover data, and I was given the opportunity to try out the new 3.0 version of Undelete Plus Tuesday. This is the update to the free version of Undelete Plus 2.93, which can be found at Download.com.

Compared with the free version, this update's new interface is much easier to use.… Read more

Nintendo's answer to Project Natal:
Wii Motion Plus, Vitality Sensor, confidence

Yesterday, Microsoft raised the bar on the mainstream-interactive landscape with the demonstration of its futuristic Project Natal. Today, Nintendo had a chance for a rebuttal, during which it chose to focus on Wii Motion Plus.

Scheduled to debut in a few weeks when it's packaged in with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, the more accurate plug-in to the Wiimote has its greatest killer app in Wii Sports Resort, the delayed sequel to Wii Sports. Showed off last year as well, two new sports in the package, archery and a three-point hoops contest, were demonstrated once again by Reggie Fils-Aime and Bill Trinen. The accuracy benefits were more noticeable to the naked eye on the archery demo: smaller hand motions allow for greater focus and targeting.

The Wii Motion Plus is a funny update to the Wii, because the advertising around it (virtual swordplay, archery) is exactly the same angle that was used for the original Wiimote. It arrives in a few weeks to stores.… Read more

Yahoo 360 to close on July 13

After almost two years without providing any support, Yahoo has finally decided to shut down its blog-centric social Web site Yahoo 360 Degrees completely on July 13. During its more than four years of existence, the site has never actually been out of the beta stage.

In an e-mail to its members, the company said, "We will be officially closing Yahoo 360 on July 13, 2009, to focus our efforts on making your new profile on Yahoo the place where you connect with the people who matter to you most. As a result, you will need to move your … Read more

Ray Ozzie on the cloud, Vista lessons, and more

Ray Ozzie is a big believer in the cloud. But he knows that large businesses don't yet share his confidence.

"Enterprises will not really trust the cloud until they get some experience with it," Ozzie said, during a speech at a J.P. Morgan investment conference in Boston on Wednesday. He said that large businesses are more likely to start by going with an online version of a familiar product like Microsoft Exchange than they are today to move a major piece of their business into the cloud. A Webcast of his speech is available on Microsoft'… Read more

Crave giveaway of the week: Win a year of Slacker Radio Plus

Music lovers, this week's CNET Crave giveaway is for you. This time, five lucky winners will receive a yearlong subscription to Slacker Radio Plus, which Slacker is offering to CNET readers in celebration of having its service on the BlackBerry named an April 2009 CNET Editors' Choice winner.

To win, you don't have to have a BlackBerry or use Slacker Radio. The prize is good for Slacker's streaming-Internet radio in all its destinations: on the Internet, BlackBerry, iPhone, Slacker's portable G2 player, and on the Sony Brazia TV, Logitech Squeezebox Duet, or Logitech Squeezebox Boom.

Slacker'… Read more

Wii MotionPlus could be a game-changer

The MotionPlus, a $20 accessory designed to improve motion detection for the Nintendo Wii remote control, will easily sell 10 million units after its market debut on June 8, an analyst contends.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told Edge this week that the majority of those sales will occur when the accessory is bundled with Wii Sports Resort, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10 later this year.

He contends that 20 percent of U.S. and European Wii owners will buy those three titles, helping the Nintendo sell 8 million units of the Wii MotionPlus in just a few months. Pachter predicts another 2 million units will sell with new Wii consoles.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, also interviewed by Edge, isn't so quick to agree. He estimates that only 3 million units of the accessory will sell by the end of 2009 and that sales will reach 10 million units during Nintendo's next fiscal year, which starts in March 2010.

Although they don't agree on exactly when the 10 million mark will be reached, the analysts both predict that the accessory will be popular.

"I expect MotionPlus to be a sneaky success and ultimately attach to at least one third of the (Wii's) installed base," Pachter told Edge.

"Our forecast could be conservative," Divnich added. "Yearly sales could balloon much higher."

In addition to selling well, the MotionPlus is set to transform the Wii experience.… Read more

Is MotionPlus too little, too late for Nintendo?

With the arrival of Wii MotionPlus, Nintendo promises even more accurate motion control for Wii games that are developed with the hardware in mind. Unfortunately, this means that all games developed up until now cannot benefit from MotionPlus in any way, shape, or form.

But is all this too little, too late for Nintendo? There's no denying that the Wii is popular; it's the best selling console by far this generation with supply only just recently catching up with demand. But as far as the idea of motion control is concerned, is it as satisfying as we all … Read more